also, on september 1st when the active roster exapands to 40 players, can teams have 40 players on the bench every game? if not, then they can only bring 25 guys to each game, but can they make changes every day?? say clemens pitches on mon, can he be switched for another RP for tuesdays game? and then next time clemens is due to start, remove the rp from the lineup and put clemens back in?

Actually the roster does not really expand on the 1st, it already exists but players on the 40 man roster simply become eligible to play and it's refered to as the expanded roster. The 25 man roster and the 40 man roster exists all season but the 15 players on the 40 man roster are not eligible to play in a Major League game intil September 1st.

If you look close you can see how crowded the benches and bullpens become. All of those players are eligble to play, unless they are on the DL of course.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think very many teams utilize the full 40 man eligibility. I think most teams bring up 5-10 guys as September call-ups, but seldom do they use all 15 extra spots on the ML roster.

mak1277 wrote:I could be mistaken, but I don't think very many teams utilize the full 40 man eligibility. I think most teams bring up 5-10 guys as September call-ups, but seldom do they use all 15 extra spots on the ML roster.

You're probably right but you also have to remember that players that are on the 15 day DL also still take up a spot on the 40 man roster (60 day DL players take up none anywhere) as well as any Major league players that are under major league contracts but have been optioned to the minors. So really when september hits teams don't usually have all 15 spots available anyway cause they are being used elsewhere.